Sarah Ferguson Caught in $750K Bribery Scandal

Sarah Ferguson was caught on tape accepting cash from an undercover journalist in exchange for access to her ex husband, Prince Andrew, Britain's special representative for international trade and investment.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Cartoon maze of how the Tea Party started. By Yonatan Frimer

Cartoon maze editorial of a bunch of sheep in a field. One sheep stands up and exclaims, "I will no longer be a follower!" The rest of the flock yells, "Me too!" and the group in the front explaim "If this catches on, we got to get that fox on board."

The topic of this Maze Cartoon in the news:

Schwarzenegger Revokes Support for Expanded Offshore Oil Drilling

As the environmental disaster unfolds in the Gulf of Mexico, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said yesterday that he no longer supports offshore drilling off the coast of Santa Barbara, NPR reported.

"You turn on the television and see this enormous disaster, you say to yourself, 'Why would we want to take on that kind of risk?' " Schwarzenegger said at a news conference.

Despite the fact that state democrats blocked a proposal last year to allow expanded drilling, the governor had supported a new plan to allow 30 new slant wells off Santa Barbara, the site of an oil platform explosion in 1969 that polluted miles of shoreline.

On Monday, Schwarzenegger said his support had been based on numerous studies finding it was safe to drill. But now, "I see on TV, the birds drenched in oil, the fishermen out of work, the massive oil spill, oil slick destroying our precious ecosystem," the governor said.

Meanwhile, Louisina Governor Bobby Jinal reported that the oil had made its way to Louisiana's Chandeleur and Breton sounds, but officials were having trouble finding it, nola.com reported. “Newspaper photojournalist Chris Granger said he could see no concentrations of oil on the barrier islands' beaches, currently a key nesting sight for a wide array of shore and water birds,” the article stated.

“Two birds found in the oil slick were recovering at a rescue center — a gannet found Friday and a brown pelican found sometime between then and Tuesday,” according to the Associated Press. (To see how trained officials clean birds, check out this article.)

“'We’re preparing for the worst,' said Jim Hood, the attorney general of Mississippi, referring both to the spill itself and the possibility of fierce legal struggles. The state has been taking photos and video of coastal areas and counting fish and birds, he said, to have a record of what exists before the oil arrives," a New York Times article stated.

Maze Cartoon topic in the news:

EU/IMF Greece Plan Sees Around EUR110 Billion In Funding Gap

BERLIN -(Dow Jones)- Greece faces a funding gap of around EUR110 billion over the next three years, according to the details of a bailout plan from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union seen by Dow Jones Newswires Sunday.

Earlier Sunday, Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said that the new measures imposed to secure access to the unprecedented bailout package are the harshest and most austere ever imposed in European history.

The plan, dated May 2, didn't give details of how much each euro-zone country and the IMF will give in loans.

"We anticipate covering the program's financing requirements with financial support from euro-area member states and the IMF while strengthening access to the private capital market," the document said.

"Notwithstanding the significant fiscal adjustment, we project a public financing gap of around 110 billion (euros), for the program period, which we expect to cover through matching bilateral lending support from euro area member states and through IMF support," said the plan.